Monday, August 13, 2012

One of the many super dividends from Katie Taylor winning
her gold medal was the opportunity for Seán Bán Breathnach to remind the nation
of the inherent beauty of their own language. SBB’s commentary after Katie was
announced winner of the fight has, in that awful modern expression, gone viral
and people seem to be enjoying the emotion of it without actually knowing what
the great man is saying.

So I thought I’d have a crack at transcribing, translating
and commenting on the commentary, in the hope that it might help people who are
trying to learn some Irish. This is slightly risky on my part, as verbatim
commentary isn’t always correct in syntax or grammar. My own Irish really isn’t
that great and there were parts of the thing I couldn’t quite make out myself
but maybe we can use those flaws to our advantage too, and gain courage in the
attempt. Seo chugainn anois - here we go.

And so quiet – ten
points to nine – [shouting] Katie Taylor! Katie Taylor, champion of Europe,
champion of the world and Olympic Champion here!

SBB gets the score wrong at the start, but he’ll correct it
later. Not that it matters – the detail is secondary to the achievement.

From the point of view of grammar, here we see the first
occurrence of that notorious beast from under the bed that terrified your
childhood but that gives Irish so much of its flavour, the tuiseal ginideach,
or genitive case. English uses “of” to show possession. Irish doesn’t, but
changes the word that’s being possessed instead. This is the tuiseal ginideach.
So if “scoil” is school, school bus becomes “bus scoile” – bus of school.

Grammatically, changing a word according to its grammatical
purpose in a sentence is called inflection. There are five tuisil in Irish, as
there are in Latin. There are six in Ancient Greek, seven in Polish. The difficulty
arises because English isn’t an inflected language – there’s nothing to equate
it to. Also, the other tuisil don’t do an awful lot in Irish, and that’s what
gives the tuiseal ginideach its Macavity the Mystery Cat air of omnipotence.

In the commentary, Europe is “an Eoraip,” but champion of
Europe is “seaimpín na hEorpa.” World is “domhan,” champion of the world is
“seaimpín an domhain.” There are a set of rules that govern this, and once you
know them it’s really not that frightening at all.

It’s won by Katie
Taylor – what a performance again, in that third round. She herself, and Daddy,
and Billy, and the man from Georgia, they’re hugging each other.

There are two words here that I don’t recognise, so I’ve put
in what I think are their nearest equivalents in the justly notorious Official
Standard. “Buaite” is the verbal adjective form of the verb “buaigh,” to win,
and there are those who will give you a fight that “Buaigh” itself not a right
verb at all. We would not be Irish if we didn’t fight amongst ourselves.

The other word I’m guessing is “leithéid,” as in the likes
of, the kind of – “ní bheidh a leithéid arís ann,” their likes will not be seen
again. SBB seems to be saying “léide” here, which may be a Conamara equivalent
of “leithéid.” It’s dialect – some people are thick about dialect in Irish and
how everything should conform to the standard. That’s ok in textbooks but in
actual living languages you must have dialect. To opponents of dialect, there
are three words that crush all argument – Cheryl Cole, pet.

We also see our friend the tuiseal ginideach in this extract
and one of the interesting points of Irish idiom. A verb in English that ends
in –ing is called a participle – coming, going, and so on. In Irish, the
giveaway is “ag” – “ag teacht,” “ag imeacht.” Where it gets interesting is if
there’s a noun after the participle.

In English, we say we’re doing something. In Irish, we say
we’re doing of something – that’s the difference. We don’t play football – we
play of football, “ag imirt peile,” rather than “ag imirt peil.”

“Barróg” is the Irish for hug, but hug doesn’t exist as a
verb in Irish. Therefore, Seán says collecting hugs - “ag baint barróige”
literally translates as collecting hugs. It’s the way the Gael rolls.